Holy crap. Alien. Well, it's your own opinion on which SYL record is your favorite, but Alien just 'does it' for me. Judging from the early(er) albums, SYL seemed to have that sort of trademark noise-blasting-wall-o-sound bits that were just great, but Alien presents other means of caving your skull in. The one thing that gets to me are the certain moments when the guitars combine a REALLY sour chord with a palm mute, to create the grossest, heaviest sound I've ever heard. (Specifically, after each "MATH" in Shitstorm, and around 4:00 in Shine in the verse after the middle section, just to name a couple instances.)
And how cool is it, that after several songs of crushing guitars, apocalyptic drumming, and monumental vocals, that a song like "Two Weeks" comes along and just somehow makes the first two-thirds of this insanity somehow make sense in some weird way?
Anyway, those are my thoughts, thought I'd start an Alien topic here.

Easily my favorite SYL album. Every song is killer.

Skeksis is one of those songs that never gets old. And that middle riff... "I'D LIKE TO TAKE IT EASY," etc. slays every time.

Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't Devin stop taking his medicines in order to "freak out" for the sake of his music?

Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't Devin stop taking his medicines in order to "freak out" for the sake of his music?

yeh something like that...and not sleeping etc

For me, Alien fights with HAARHT over 5th or 6th place. City, SYL, FTART and No Sleep are much better. Only TNB is worse.

I think the song writing on Alien is average, and guitar sound is too low in the mix.

And I hate that chugging guitar sound in Shine and Shitstorm that you describe.

For me, Alien fights with HAARHT over 5th or 6th place. City, SYL, FTART and No Sleep are much better. Only TNB is worse.

I think the song writing on Alien is average, and guitar sound is too low in the mix.

And I hate that chugging guitar sound in Shine and Shitstorm that you describe.

I have a feeling that the album polarizes a lot of its listeners. You either love it or... you just don't. For me, it's tied with City for my favorite SYL record. I love the near-constant yet still cohesive insanity of it, the drum sound (I know lots of people hate it, but I love the snare sound... and the kick is one of the few near-clicky kick sounds that I actually like), the weird 'green' sort of guitar tone, the huge keyboards and samples, and of course Devin's vocal performance... Everything about it is just so pleasing to my ears, somehow. I can totally understand how someone just wouldn't dig it, though.

It's a great album.

It took alot of listens to really warm up too it, but now i absolutely love it, i think it's genius...

I think the dissonance, weirdness, aggressive qualities on this album are really on another level. It's a unique album, there's nothing out there that's even really that similar IMO.

Alien is easily my favorite SYL album, and also my favorite album of all time. The weird thing about this is that i'm not into extreme metal such as SYL. I'm a proghead, but Alien is so intense, innovative, unique, powerful, crisp, as well as a lot of other good attributes, that it is the best album that I have ever heard. Unfortunately for me, I like it so much, that I'm afraid I won't hear anything as good as this again in my entire life...

One of my favorite albums, but for some reason whenever I listen to it I feel really tired and I almost fall asleep.

For me, Alien fights with HAARHT over 5th or 6th place. City, SYL, FTART and No Sleep are much better. Only TNB is worse.

I think the song writing on Alien is average, and guitar sound is too low in the mix.

And I hate that chugging guitar sound in Shine and Shitstorm that you describe.

Ouch man. Ouch.

Alien is my second favourite album (Beaten by City) and it would be my favourite if it weren't for Two Weeks. God, I hate that song.

And I could probably listen to a whole album of songs like Shitstorm, but I would probably be insane by the end of it. That song is intense.

[Blazingmonga]

Alien is my second favourite album (Beaten by City) and it would be my favourite if it weren't for Two Weeks. God, I hate that song.

And I could probably listen to a whole album of songs like Shitstorm, but I would probably be insane by the end of it. That song is intense.

I think Two Weeks is beautiful....and it makes the transition into Thalamus that much more crushing. Wouldn't be as cool without it!

Alien is as good as City in my opinion. my ranking is:

1.City/Alien
2.SYL
3.TNB
4.HAARHT

I agree Alien is just as good as City, it just depends on my mood which one i like more

So far, Alien is the only SYL album I can stand at all. Aside from Alien, I only like a couple of SYL songs, namely: Bring On the Young and Room 429 (or whatever). The melodies seem too unmelodic for me to be interested. And, it must be said, Shitstorm is my least favorite track off the album, as well. But I am coming from the direction of listening to the godlike Synchestra and Infinity and Terria, and suddenly having no genius Devy sorts of melodies/harmonies (or at least none really audible), it kind of turns me off. Anyone have any suggestions? A few more of their songs with just great melodies or vocal parts (and by great vocal parts, I don't mean absolutely ridiculous screaming, because 99% of the time, that does nothing for me).

I like Devy's work too much to ignore SYL, but I am having very serious difficulty finding his usual amazing songwriting in there...